COMMON NAMES:   Soft maple. Depending on figure: quilted maple, curly maple, tiger maple, fiddleback maple. Maple that has been infected by ambrosia beetles exhibits a streaked appearance known as ambrosia or ghost maple.

SPECIFIC GRAVITY:   .44

DENSITY:  

TANGENTIAL MOVEMENT:   7.2%

RADIAL MOVEMENT:   3%

VOLUMETRIC SHRINKAGE:   12%

DURABILITY1:   Poor

SOURCE:  Eastern U.S. and Southern Canada

DESCRIPTION:   Density varies among the half dozen or so species marketed as soft maple. The densest and strongest of the soft maples is red maple (Acer rubrum, with a specific gravity of 0.49.) All of the soft maples are close-grained, with excellent turning and shaping characteristics; heartwood pale reddish-brown, sometimes variegated with other pale colors, sapwood nearly white.

1 Durability refers to a wood's resistance to rotting in wet environments.